INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE. 



Memory of insects. 66. Recognition of home by the bee. 67. Singular 

 conduct of the queen. 68. Rogers' s lines on this subject. 69. Error 

 of the poet. 70. Anecdote of bees by Mr. Stickney. 71. Instinct of 

 the pompilides. 72. The carpenter bee. 



36. IRREGULAR migrations, which are supposed to he in general 

 determined hy an instinctive presentiment of an approaching 

 inclement season, are undertaken by small animals called 

 lemmings, which have a close analogy to rats, and which inhabit 



Fig. 11. The Lemming. 



the mountainous districts of Norway and the Frozen Ocean. These 

 animals live in burrows, in which, like other similar species, they 

 excavate rooms sufficiently spacious, in which they bring up their 

 family. Their food consists in summer of herbs, and in winter of 

 lichens. They lay up no store, however, and collect their supplies 

 from day to day. By an inexplicable instinct, they have a fore- 

 knowledge of a rigorous winter, during which the frozen ground 

 would not allow them to collect their food in the country they 

 inhabit. In such case, they emigrate in immense numbers, going 

 to more favoured climates. This surprising presentiment of the 

 character of the season has been frequently observed in this 

 species. It was especially noticed in 1742. During that winter 

 the season was one of extraordinary severity in the province of 

 Umea, though much more mild in that of Lula, of which never- 

 theless the latitude is higher. It was remarked, on this occasion, 

 that the lemmings emigrated from the former province, but not 

 from the latter. 



On the occasions of such emigrations, countless numbers of 

 troops of these animals, sometimes descending from the mountains, 

 advance in close columns, always maintaining one direction, from 

 which they never allow themselves to be turned by any obstacle, 

 swimming across rivers wherever they encounter them, and 

 skirting the rocks wherever they cannot climb over them. It is 

 more especially during the night that these legions continue their 

 march, reposing and feeding more generally during the day. 

 130 



